University’s outsourced workers get £7.50 an hour

Cleaners and other support staff at south London’s Kingston University saw their minimum hourly wage increase to £7.50 this month under a new pay settlement negotiated by UNISON public services union.

The two-year deal with the Kingston University Service Company – a wholly owned subsidiary of the university which also provides transport, student residential management and security services – provides for a further 4% increase next February, taking the minimum rate to £7.80 an hour.

And UNISON has secured a commitment from the company to harmonise its employees’ pay rates with those of the university’s directly employed staff.

Jon Richards, the union’s national head of higher education, said the settlement “begins to recognise the contribution that all staff make to supporting students”, while assistant branch secretary Roger Eldred welcomed “the commitment to harmonise pay and conditions in the longer term as a springboard to end the two-tier workforce.”